If you watch much golf on the telly, then it’s likely that you’ve heard this expression: “It’s a funny ol’ world”. The statement is normally made with respect to something that should have happened, but didn’t when a pro golfer expertly struck the ball with his club. It meant that usually the ball goes in one direction, but that on this occasion it acted as if it had a mind of its own and decided to go somewhere else.

The same thing could be said of management. “It’s a funny ol’ world”. The manager should have done this and not that. Why did he / she do that? Or, why did the other person react like that, or overreact?

No sensible person reacts like that.

Just as a golfer has to learn how to manage the direction of the ball, it’s important that you recognize that the indispensable skill of every manager is that he / she can manage people.

That may seem like an abundantly obvious thing to say, until you realize that few are promoted from non-managerial positions into managerial ones because of their people management skill.

Most of the time, they’re promoted because they have excelled as non-managers.

Although this is a time-honoured path to promotion, it’s also a flawed one. That’s because the skills required to be a good manager are unrelated to those that are needed to excel in a non-managerial role.

For example, it’s widely believed that in order to be a good leader, you have to learn how to follow first.

That’s nonsense, of course.

Why?

Because the two activities are unrelated.

People will follow others that they want to be like or those who they admire; but their willingness to do so has nothing to do with how well they will lead or learn to lead others.

That some don’t wish to follow doesn’t mean that they themselves will be poor leaders. Instead it means that the person they were expected to follow wasn’t worthy of that honour, at least not in the opinion of the person who was expected to do it.

Sounds crazy, when expressed like that; doesn’t it?

Yet, that’s exactly what happens.

What that means is that new managers need managerial training. They need to be apprised of why they do what they do to a certain extent and made to understand how others are likely to react to them as a result.

That’s a tall order for anyone seeking to move up the organizational food chain.

You see, many people who have the confidence to move from one side of the house to the other don’t think they need to be trained. Instead, they think that they already know what to do. If they didn’t, they reason, they never would have got this far.

The thing is that management skill doesn’t come naturally. Much of the time, the right thing to do is the opposite of what you feel you ought to do.

For example, how do first-time managers typically handle authority? To begin with, they view it as possessing the lawful influence within an organization to tell people what to do.

At its essence, this is true. However, to be most effective, it’s not exercised like that. People who work for the most effective managers do what they should because they want to; they don’t have to be coerced.

Wielding your authority over a group of people just because you can is a recipe for disaster. They can cramp your style so much that it’s impossible to get anyone to do anything.

True leaders all have willing followers. No one has to be threatened for not following. They all follow because they want to.

Seen in this light, it’s easier to understand why making managers of non-managers simply because they do their non-managerial jobs well is the wrong way to go about things. It’s a bit like saying that because you know how to fix fighter planes, you ought to be a fighter pilot. Although it’s possible that a mechanic has the aptitude to learn how to fly, that he / she knows how to fix planes doesn’t make it so.

Or take this example. School teachers will tell you that some parents think that because they went to school that they know more about teaching than the teachers. But here’s the thing: all of us have gone to school; but that doesn’t mean that we have the aptitude, never mind the skill to teach children.

The selection of new managers must be thought of in the same way. By all means, train them to become better managers, but also single out those who should manage in the first place on the basis of those that people want to follow.

A misunderstanding of how to use authority is also seen in the act of delegation or, more likely, the failure to exercise it at all.

Many managers, first-time or otherwise, are reluctant to delegate their work. They believe that no one else can do it as well as they and that even if they could, it would take the one to whom the work was delegated two or three times as long to learn how to do the task. The argument is, therefore, that the person who already knows how to do it should because it would take too long to explain how to someone else.

Of course, this is pure nonsense. Delegation is an essential skill, not because of the benefit you’ll get from doing it the first time, but also for all the times you’ll do it in the future. On top of that, you are training those who will succeed you in the future.

It’s probably obvious to you that bullies don’t make good managers. You have to know how to separate those who manage by the force of their personality for all the wrong reasons. Bullies manage through intimidation and chutzpah. Some people are attracted to that; but that doesn’t make those who do it management material. If you don’t know the difference, then you could do with some training yourself.

The primary benefit of management training is that it enables first time managers to encounter many difficult interpersonal challenges under the wise guidance of those who are knowledgeable about them already. Role play probably isn’t an effective way to teach this. That’s because there are too many unknowns on the part of both participants in any discussion. But understanding personality differences, perceptions of threat, motivations, peer pressure, the need to delegate, and other things which create context can make the managerial candidate better prepared for the real thing.

The supervisors of new managers also need to be trained. One of the biggest problems with them is that they expect the newbies to step right in as fully-developed managers. You wouldn’t expect that from someone in any other position. Why is management any different?

You need to understand that while the new manager has the aptitude, the skill will develop over time; and you have to be willing to afford the time for maturation to occur. Everyone is incompetent for the first six months or so, and that includes managers. Sometimes, it’s longer.

New manager training is essential before anyone becomes a manager. Without it, the chances of this person succeeding are greatly reduced.

Remember that it’s much easier to establish good habits from the beginning, than to try to break bad ones.

Ensure that your new managers get off to a good start by giving them the training they need from the beginning.

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